They had human bodies and heads of animals in the Chinese zodiac, and each would spout water for two hours in turn.

ECONOMIST: Chinese art

Mr Yam expects there to be 4, 000 by the end of the year and 6, 000-7, 000 eventually. (He reckons Apple has 3, 500 and that Nokia and Samsung have 9, 000 each.) HTC is also introducing phones tailored for the Chinese market.

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The searching need for faith is written on the faces of the Chinese who pace each day, by the thousands, through the "Confucian forest" in Qufu.

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"China again calls for the two countries to immediately stop hostility and respect each other's sovereignty, " Liu Weiming, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a regular news briefing Thursday.

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In November, China unveiled a plan to subsidize 0.4 yuan (6.4 cents) for each cubic meter of shale gas produced between 2012 and 2015, according to the Chinese Ministry of Finance.

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Ford recently raided a Chinese factory and turned up 7, 000 sets of counterfeit brake pads destined for Egypt, each stamped with a replica of Ford's blue oval.

FORBES: Stolen Cars

Thousands of Chinese-flagged merchant ships now cross the ocean each year, giving China plenty of justification for increasing its naval presence.

ECONOMIST: Asia's navies

We crowded around each in turn, flanked by other Chinese tour groups as identifiable as rival armies: red pins for the U-Tour travel agency, orange windbreakers for the students from Shenzhen.

NEWYORKER: The Grand Tour

Ideal for areas with problematic parking, the Chinese-made scooters are 100 percent electric with a 20Ah SLA battery each, and there's even a dock built into the dash to charge most Android or iPhone models.

ENGADGET: Scoot aims to be Zipcar of electric scooters, launches in SF